Commit to Ensure Your Success

According to a recent study done by U.S. News, 80% of New Year’s resolution makers become New Year’s resolution breakers by the second week of February. Similarly, many organizations suffer a similar fate with their OKR implementation. A common mistake many teams make with their objectives and key results is that they “set and forget” goals.

In both cases, the reason they fail is that they don’t take small steps and review progress on a regular basis.

OKC has added a third principle called Commitments alongside Objectives and Key Results. Commitments is where the real execution takes place. Commitments involves setting aside 10-15 minutes on a regular basis to meet and discuss progress. Each team member makes 1 or 2 commitments during the meeting. A commitment is a specific action that will influence one or more of the key results. Commitments answers the question, “What will I do to get there?” Commitments should be owned by the team member and completed before the next meeting.

During the meeting, each team member answers the following questions:

• Did you complete your commitments from the last meetingng?
• With the information we have today, how confident are you that you will achieve each key result?
• Are there any impediments in your way to reach the goal?
• What are the one to two things that I can doo this week in order to impact the key results?

In addition to answering the questions, the team should update the data for each key result if available.

There are some rules to make sure your meetings go smoothly:

1. Keep your meetings short. Allocate 10-15 minutes for the meeting. If necessary, have everyone stand during the meeting.
2. The meeting should take place at the same time and location. Consistency is important to create a sustained cadence. Missing a meeting will cause the team to lose momentum and impact your key results.
3. Only discuss the objectives and key results during the meeting time. The team should keep all other topics out. If you need to discuss urgent topics, schedule a meeting after the commitment meeting. It is important to keep the commitment meeting separate.
4. Focus on improving the results and not blaming or making excuses. At times, you will experience disappointing results. Team members should feel confident to share bad news. Help and support while holding the team accountable to complete missed commitments.

Do you suffer from “set and forget” goals. Let us help you below.